Archive for the ‘peace’ Category

The Story of Stuff International

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

I have posted about this before but they have news of now being able to view the Story of Stuff movie in many many languages which makes for a good opportunity for me to plug it again. If you have not seen this short film then you probably bought your family and friends way too many presents for Christmas or you are still sleeping on pillows that have been dowsed in chemicals known to damage the human brain. Maybe it is not for everyone but I suggest you check it out: The Story of Stuff International

Posted in alternative media, environment, inspiring, peace, politics | No Comments »

The year 2008 in photographs

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Via boston.com

The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3)
2008 in photographs (part 2 of 3)
2008, the year in photographs (part 3 of 3)

Posted in art, environment, peace, politics | No Comments »

Keep the Internet Open

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Innovation, Information, Evolution.

Sure I don’t want my internet speed to get slower and I certainly don’t want this Government Filter to fail us by being inaccurate. And who doesn’t want to see child porn removed from society but is this filter the answer?

This unrestricted information highway that we are surely taking for granted by now has created such innovation in our society and things are only just beginning. I try to keep up with it, but even I couldn’t articulate to you the positive impact of this Innovation. Here are some keywords though: Google (Stop there if you need to), YouTube, Blogs, Email, IM, Video Chat, Facebook. These things are connecting us in ways we never imagined and it turns out we still go outside even with these things. These things are informing us.

I agree that the internet makes it possible for the ‘bad’ stuff to be shared too and I can say for sure that there are things I do not want my son to stumble across, but I just googled the word ‘child‘ and was not presented with porn. Firstly this will be because google is not going to show me porn as far as I understand, but it also for me reflects that fact that google works on relevance. So what appears on your top 10 search results is a reflection on how people are using the internet relative to your search term. Is it not true that Einstein didn’t remember formulas because he thought it was silly to fill his head with things he could find in a book. For me the internet is like that. My knowledge over the last 5+ years is made up from google search results. This tool has been priceless like so many other features on the internet. The abilty to share information the way the internet enables us is helping us as a species evolve if not avoid our possible demise due to lack of climate change information. Governments keep climate change from us long before the internet came along. They have proven themselves able to do sure things. The open internet has been able to by pass them. This cannot change. The internet has become a tool for us to keep our governments in check and now they want to use it to keep us in check. Just when things were starting to feel a bit more democratic.

If we as a society cannot govern ourselves on what is appropriate or not for our children then it is a measure of how evolved our society is. There must be a more in-depth conversation that can be had beyond simply the idea of stopped these people from being able to share images of child pornography. Um… why are people sharing images of child pornography and isn’t it a bit late if we are stepping in at that point??? Our evolution is also at stake. There is so much goodwill on the internet that it far outweighs the bad in my opinion and good will win over evil in the end anyway. So many people on the internet are trying to empower each other not exploit. If you are seeing the internet in the negative light then it might just be a reflection of your overall world view. Too much 6pm news and Courier Mail. The world is a beautiful place with a wonderful species called human beings. There is more good in man than there is bad. If you don’t believe me check out www.ted.com.

Want to truly understand the internet. Read Lawrence Lessig’s book: The Future of Ideas. Please note that you can buy this book from a book shelf or download the whole thing for free from that link.

Nearly forgot to add a link to the Australian Campaign to stop this all from happening. No Clean Feed. Check it out.

Posted in alternative media, computers, peace, politics | 2 Comments »

I need to do something real.

Monday, October 6th, 2008

Ok, so I was only going to post one of these but they are so well done. This is how you get peoples attention. Feeling really bad that I didn’t do the 40 Hour Famine. No doubt though that these ads played on main stream TV at popular time slots (tongue in cheek).

YOu can find more here: WorldVisionStir

Posted in environment, inspiring, peace, politics | No Comments »

XDRTB

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I am still looking into it but this is a very interesting issue that probably does need our attention. Extremely Drug Resistant TB. They are saying that it can be prevented. That is good news, but it still requires attention. For more back ground info on the site watch this TED Video: James Nachtwey: TED Prize wish: Share a vital story with the world.

Posted in environment, peace, politics | No Comments »

Can water run out?

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

This is a very interesting looking doco about the future of Water. It is said that one day we will be fighting wars over water. Man I hope it doesn’t come to that, it would be a real failing of our society. At Urban Grind I have always said, “Never deny anyone the opportunity to a glass of water or to use the toilet.” What goes around comes around and I might be real thirsty one day and having to rely on the kindness of my fellow man.

Posted in environment, movies, peace, politics | 1 Comment »

PARK(ing) Day Brisbane 2008

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

This Friday the 19th of September is International PARK(ing) Day. And this year in Brisbane it is going to be big. You can find all of the details, including park locations on the Brisbane PARK(ing) Day Website. Last year we kicked it off in Brisbane but Yen has taken it so much further this year than I ever dreamed. Brisbane is on it’s way to being one of the biggest PARK(ing) Day cities in the world. So if you see a PARK stop and check it out - try it out. And if you get a chance tell Yen how wonderful she is by leaving a comment on her weblog. This would not have been possible without her. You rock Yen!

Posted in customers, friends, local community, peace | No Comments »

First Kiva loan paid back.

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Just received some great news. One of our first Kiva loans have been paid back in full. How cool is that? You can check out all of the info here. We all made this happen together. Your tips, the staffs volunteering of those tips to Kiva. Give each other a clap. Now I am off to make some more loans. Should be able to make about another 2, but don’t rush to our loans page as it can take about 3 days for the Paypal transaction to go through. So far we have made $125 worth of loans in $25 dollar amounts with one paid back. Thank you everyone. It gives me a real buzz to be able to do this kind of thing.

Posted in customers, inspiring, peace, staff | No Comments »

Machuca

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Just finished watching a movie called Machuca. It was recommended by Karen as one of the movies that we could be lending out from the shop. In itself the movie was great. I am no movie reviewer so all I can really say is that I think it was really well made. What stuck me about the movie was the theme of hatred. It is not the first movie to depict such racial/political/class/etc hatred but this time I thought I might blog my thoughts on hatred.

Besides Internet Explorer I pretty much don’t feel hatred for anything or anyone these days. I used to feel a lot of hatred though, once upon a time - for people mostly. It made me feel powerful even though I know now it was a power that was born in fear. It was an illusionary power that was week in nature and never prevailed. It did not serve me in the end. So to a degree I can understand it when a person hates, but when a culture hates I can’t identify with that on a personal level.

I guess that I am lucky to have never had hatred for another culture instilled in me although in recent times there have been attempts. And just so my government knows. I don’t buy the scare campaigns. I will decide one by one my trust for another person and should a person do me wrong, I will not condemn a whole culture for it.

So in the movie there is this cultural hatred that escalates into violence and ultimately a military coup. And I think to myself for a minute that I am lucky to live in a country where there may be racism and cultural hated but it is mild and it is kept to oneself mostly. I quickly call myself a ‘Sheltered Wanker’ to start with, because I bet there is plenty of cultural hated out there that is affecting people in real and damaging ways everyday. Either I am fortunate or I don’t see it because I am not contributing to it. Then I remember Detention Centres - I do see it, it is just too easy to forget.

But here is the point I am trying to get at. From good soil good food grows. From poor quality soil that is laden with toxic chemicals things still grow, even things that look pretty much the same as things that grow healthy but they are not healthy. Hitler was a plant growing in a soil that let him be the person he was. And there are many other examples like this one. Is the soil to blame? That is, are the people to blame? I am going to go with Yes. But I say it with empathy. I heard it explained once that Hitler’s ‘emergence’ can be traced back along a chain of events. Unchecked sledging that becomes ok on a day to day level makes small things that should not have been ok, ok. And once the small things seem ok it makes the bigger things seem ok too, and on and on until no one remembers how it started. What kind of soil are we? What kind of leaders will emerge from us? Sorry for the long winded analogy - emergence is the key word. Responsibility belongs to us.

I don’t understand all of the details but someone suggested to me once on this topic that Pauline Hanson was Australia’s test and we passed. Maybe, not sure. You might know better - use the comments. I do like the idea though that for all our superficial cultural hatred, if called on it we would walk the other way.

By the way, in the soil analogy there is usually a farmer…

Posted in alternative media, movies, peace, personal, politics, staff | No Comments »

Kiva Update

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Just a quick post to let you know how our ‘From the Tip Jar to Kiva’ efforts are going. So far we have lent $125US. You can see a very cool breakdown of who we have lent to what countries they are from and more. Getting involved in Kiva is very easy and I encourage you to do so too. At the moment we also have some jars of preserved lemons for $12(sml) and $17(lrg) with all proceeds going to Kiva.

Kiva Lender Page: Urban Grind

I must remind you that all the staff at Urban Grind volunteer the tips money to this project. And thank you if you have ever thrown anything into our tip jar. It is a gesture that we appreciate.

Posted in customers, peace, staff | No Comments »

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